show a clean pair of heels

present singular third person shows a clean pair of heels · participle present showing a clean pair of heels · past showed a clean pair of heels · participle past shown a clean pair of heels

1. idiomaticTo run away; to make an escape quickly.

   During the melee the suspect had run off, showing a clear pair of heels.

   2005 April, Bernard Brown, “The Sherlock Holmes of ‘G’ Division”, in Dan Norder, editor, Ripper Notes, number 22, Inklings Press, →ISBN, page 33

   3 more examples

   ‘[...]No, gentlemen; he'll always show ’em a clean pair of heels very early in the scuffle, and sneak away.’

   1859, Charles Dickens, edited by Richard Maxwell, A Tale of Two Cities, Book the Second, Penguin Classics, published 2003, →ISBN, Chapter XXIV, page 249

   But in the second column the "Britannia" Pacific , though with one coach less, showed a cleaner pair of heels, [...].

   1959 March, Cecil J. Allen, “Locomotive Running Past and Present”, in Trains Illustrated, page 133

   The two German ships soon showed us and the battle-cruiser Indefatigable in company, a clean pair of heels, though the cruiser HMS Dublin managed to keep them in sight until they disappeared into the Straits of Messina to coal.

   1977, Brian Schofield, edited by Gerald Jordan, Naval Warfare In The Twentieth Century 1900—1945, Taylor & Francis, →ISBN, ‘Jacky’ Fisher, HMS Indomitable and the Dogger Bank Action: A Personal Memoir, page 66